Why 3D animation takes so long, and how to fix it

Published: 12, Sep, 2023
Updated: 12, Sep, 2023

If you are a motion designer, you know how time-consuming and challenging it can be to create a 3D animation ad from scratch. You have to go through multiple stages of pre-production, production, and post-production, each with its own set of tasks and skills. But what if there was a way to simplify and speed up the process by using a revolutionary 3D app that can do most of the work for you? In this blog post, we will explore how such an app could help you produce a stunning 3D animation ad in record time.

The Production Process of a 3D Animation Ad

Before we dive into the features of the hypothetical 3D app, let's review the steps involved in producing a 3D animation ad as an example using a conventional 3D software (such as Blender, Maya, or Cinema 4D). This "hypothetical" ad, is a simple one, 1-2 minutes of animations, to be used and re-used in multiple social media sites with different aspect ratios. The process can be divided into three main stages: pre-production, production, and post-production.

Pre-production

This is the stage where you plan and prepare for the animation. It involves:

• Conceptualizing: Coming up with the idea and the message of the ad.
• Storyboarding: Sketching out the scenes and the transitions of the ad.
• Designing: Creating the style, color scheme, and mood of the ad.

The pre-production stage can take anywhere from 1 to 4 days, depending on the complexity and clarity of the concept.

Production

This is the stage where you create the 3D assets and animate them. It involves:

• 3D Layout: Creating the 3D scene with basic shapes and camera angles.
• 3D Modeling: Building the 3D models of the characters and objects.
• 3D Texturing: Applying colors, materials, and textures to the 3D models.
• 3D Rigging: Adding bones and controls to the 3D models for animation.
• 3D Animation: Animating the movements and expressions of the 3D models.
• VFX: Adding visual effects such as fire, smoke, particles, etc.
• Lighting: Setting up the lights and shadows in the 3D scene.
• Rendering: Generating the final images or videos from the 3D scene.

The production stage can take anywhere from 18 to 36 days, depending on the length and detail of the animation.

Post-production

This is the stage where you edit and polish the animation. It involves:

• Compositing: Combining the rendered images or videos with other elements such as text, logos, sound effects, etc.
• Editing: Cutting, trimming, and arranging the clips to form a coherent sequence.
• Color Grading: Adjusting the color, contrast, brightness, and saturation of the animation to enhance its visual appeal.
• Sound Design: Adding music, voice-over, sound effects, and mixing them to create an immersive audio experience.

The post-production stage can take anywhere from 1 to 4 days, depending on the quality and complexity of the editing.

The Benefits of Using a Hypothetical 3D App

Now that we have seen how long it can take to produce a 3D animation ad using a conventional 3D software, let's imagine how much faster and easier it could be using a hypothetical 3D app that has some amazing features that can simplify and speed up the process. Here are some of these features:

• A large library of 3D assets that can be used instead of creating new models from scratch.
• A library of realistic 3D materials that can be applied to the models without having to create or edit them manually.
• A character generator with at least 5 artistic styles that can create rigged characters ready for animation.
• A library of 3D animations that can be directly applied to the scene without having to keyframe them manually.
• A set of classic particle system effects that can be added to the scene without having to create or customize them manually.
• Advanced lighting presets that fit 90% of use cases without having to set up or adjust them manually.
• A cloud rendering engine that renders at 100x the speed of a normal computer.

Using these features, we can estimate that some of the steps in the production stage would be significantly reduced or eliminated, such as:

1. 3D Layout

   • Creating the 3D scene with basic shapes and camera angles
   • Length: 1-2 days
   • Savings: 1 day, what id this was template? 🤔

2. 3D Modeling

   • Building the 3D models of the characters and objects
   • Length: 2-4 days
   • Savings: 2 days, what if there was a library of assets? 🗃️

3. 3D Texturing

   • Applying colors, materials, and textures to the 3D models
   • Length: 2-4 days
   • Savings: 2-4 days, what if textures were supplied in a library too? image-based and procedural? 🌠

4. 3D Rigging

   • Adding bones and controls to the 3D models for animation
   • Length: 2-4 days
   • Savings: 1 day, say most character-based animations are ready? so that you can focus on rigging other things. 🏃

5. 3D Animation

   • Animating the movements and expressions of the 3D models
   • Length: 4-8 days
   • Savings: 4-8 days, Adobe Premiere has a list of pre-defined effects and transitions, what if our hypothetical software did too? 🎬

6. VFX

   • Adding visual effects such as fire, smoke, particles, etc.
   • Length: 2-4 days
   • Savings: 2-4 days, yup, part of the asset library too 😉

7. Lighting

   • Setting up the lights and shadows in the 3D scene
   • Length: 1-2 days
   • Savings: 1-2 days, you guessed it, lighting presets too, from HDRIs to studio lighting configurations. 🚨

8. Rendering

   • Generating the final images or videos from the 3D scene
   • Length: 2-4 days
   • Savings: 2-4 days, what if a cloud computer creating everything for you in hours instead of weeks? ☁️

Adding up these potential savings, we can estimate that using the hypothetical 3D app could reduce the production time by about 15-30 days, which is about 83% - 92% of the original production time using a conventional 3D software. Of course, this is a very rough estimation and it may not account for other factors such as revisions, feedback, communication, troubleshooting, etc. But it gives an idea of how much faster and easier it could be to produce a 3D animation ad using such an advanced and user-friendly app.

Conclusion

In this blog post, we have seen how to produce a motion design 3D animation ad using a conventional 3D software and how much time it can take. We have also imagined how a hypothetical 3D app could help us create a stunning 3D animation ad in record time by using some amazing features that can simplify and speed up the process.

That's what we are creating at Third.

Thank you for reading 😊.